A GIRL who was raped and abused by two men did give a formal statement three years before they were charged despite police saying victims were not willing to do so, her parents said.

The parents said the teenager - who was in her early teens when she was abused - spoke to police twice at home and then at a police station.

The couple from Littlehampton say they were later told the case would not be going further, raising discrepancies with the police's account of why the case was dropped at that stage.

Questions over whether police could have done more to prosecute the offenders in 2012 will be looked at as part of an ongoing serious case review and a misconduct investigation into one detective sergeant.

Police re-opened the case in 2014 and yesterday her abusers Osmon Koroma, 31, of Norton Road, Hove, and Max N'Gasa, a gardener, 25, of Cranmer Avenue, Hove, were jailed for sexually abusing the teen and 10 other girls in Littlehampton between 2010 and 2014.

Koroma, who was HIV positive, got 14 years, and N'Gasa was jailed for 11 years.

Sussex Police said after the men's convictions last month that the case did not go further in 2012 as the victims were not willing to give statements.

They said this week that the family spoken to by The Argus decided not to support a prosecution or video interview at the time and had confirmed this in writing.

However, the victim''s mother said the girl spoke to police three times and she then signed something about the investigation being dropped after being told that it would be.

She said: "It was originally stopped on the basis they had stopped the investigation, and there was a phone-call to say that the police would not be proceeding with it.

"She told them [police] everything... and then they said the case would not continue – I had to sign a piece of paper."

Her father added: "We did not know quite what to think because we had never been in that situation before. "Obviously the police had their reasons; they were not explaining to us what their reasons were apart from the fact that she would have felt a bit pressurised as a star witness at her age."

They added they agreed stopping the case at that point "took pressure off" their daughter, and that other girls' did not want to give statements.

Her mother added: "I would have hated for her to have gone all through court and then [for them] to get off."

Detective Chief Inspector Miles Ockwell, who re-opened the case in 2014 to secure the latest convictions, said the written record of the 2012 case includes the family's statement.

He said: "It basically says that they don't want to provide a video interview or support the prosecution further.

"So again, it could be interpreted both ways; it could be them saying, I don't want to do it. It could be us saying, please can you sign this."

Koroma and Ngasa groomed the teenagers, many of whom knew each other, buying them cigarettes and alcohol before inviting them up to Koroma's then flat in Wick Parade.

GUILTY VERDICTS HAVE HELPED MY DAUGHTER MOVE ON

THE father of a teenager abused by Osmon Koroma and Max N'Gasa recalled taking her to the police station in nearby Durrington to tell police about the awful things going on.

The underage girl had already spoken at home to her parents and police officers about what they recognised as abuse from two men, even if she had not always recognised it as such herself.

It had emerged after rumours started swirling at school about the two men hanging out with girls in Wick Parade, Littlehampton.

“It’s something that developed, not something that spilled out,” her father recalled. “It developed after the questioning and putting two and two together, while every day seemed to get worse.”

Her mother recalled: “It all came out when she spoke to police; she told them everything that had been happening – the offering of cigarettes and drink for favours and getting them drunk.

“She said she did not want to see that happening any more. It got to the point where it was too much.”

Yet it was not until some four years later that the girl eventually saw her and the other girls’ abusers convicted in court. The case had been dropped by police in 2012, despite her and another victim telling police about the allegations, and their school vice-principal also reporting an allegation to police.

In fact, the scale of it was bigger than was reported and in the intervening years one of the men went on to abuse other girls.

Yesterday Koroma, a labourer, 30, of Norton Road, Hove was jailed for 14 years and N’Gasa, 25, of Cranmer Avenue, Hove, was jailed for 11 years after they were convicted of abusing 11 girls in total between 2010 and 2014.

The men groomed the girls by buying them cigarettes and alcohol before taking them up to Koroma’s then flat in Wick Parade, Littlehampton, their trial heard. The pair were finally arrested in 2015 after police reopened the case in 2014 as part of a review partly sparked by the Rotherham child grooming scandal and as the school teacher raised concerns about a younger group of girls being targeted by the same men.

Whether more could have been done to prosecute the men earlier on is expected to be examined as part of an ongoing serious case review, which will look at all agencies’ involvement in the cases.

The question will also be looked at by an internal gross misconduct investigation Sussex Police is carrying out into a West Sussex detective sergeant who handled the 2012 case.

There are discrepancies between one family’s and the police’s version of why things were not taken forward in their daughter’s case. The family remember being told by police the case was not going ahead but police said the the family decided not to support a prosecution.

The parents said they did not question the way the investigation had been handled. The mother said: “I like to think that the fact that although they said the case was closed they were really trying to get enough evidence as they could to make sure it really could stick on them.

“I would have hated for her to have gone all through court and then [for them] to get off.”

Police said despite the girls’ initial statements the family did not want to proceed to providing video evidence, which they say was “necessary to satisfy the full investigative requirements of the CPS, and then the court”.

The CPS said a video interview was “not absolute, but it is something we may ask for during the course of a case and in liaison with the police,” but that victimless prosecutions could only happen in domestic violence cases.

The review is also likely to look specifically at whether more could have been done to gain victims’ confidence in 2012 to give the evidence they eventually gave in 2015.

The family said the girl – whose case was not proceeded with in 2012 – moved on with her life before being approached by police again in 2014.

Her mother said: “I think she had sort of thought it was finished with, that was it, but then this was bringing it all back.”

Her father added: “She was worried about having to go through it all again – but with the help of the officer she got to the point where she said: ‘It’s got to be done. I am going to do it’.

“We feel the [police] support team have been very good to us.

“She decided that she had to do this – she wanted closure, she wanted it finished.

“She said: ‘If I don’t do it and they get off and get out, then they will do it again.’

“And she knew the number of girls that had been involved and she wanted to help them.”

He said the guilty verdicts had helped his daughter move on from the case.

He said: “I think she always had this guilt trip about being involved and by getting the guilty verdict it really cleared that off her mind. She felt then that people did believe what had gone on, and she relaxed a bit more.

“I think as a family you think, it’s something that you think always happens to someone else.”

VICTIM TELLS HOW SHE FEELS ‘WORTHLESS’

SENTENCING Osmon Koroma, 32, and Max N’Gasa, 25, to 14 and 11 years respectively, Judge Jeremy Gold QC sharply dismissed an argument from Koroma’s lawyer, Gregory Bull QC, that there were “some disturbing features of the behaviour of some of the girls”.

Praising the girls for having the courage to give evidence in court, the judge said their youth made them “vulnerable and entitled to be treated as such”.

Addressing the convicted men at Lewes Crown Court, he said: “You showed them no such respect or understanding but decided to exploit their immaturity and use these girls for sex.”

He noted that the men had “chosen to ignore” a warning from police about their behaviour in 2012, and said the fact Koroma was HIV positive but didn’t tell the girls or use protection showed his “complete disregard for their safety”.

Mitigating, N’Gasa’s lawyer Nadine Radford QC said her client had been attacked in prison after prisoners heard about his offences. Mr Bull said Koroma continued to deny what happened and his partner, with whom he has a young son, planned to stick by him. Koroma was convicted of eight offences against five girls: one rape, two sexual assaults and five offences of sexual activity with a child. N’Gasa was convicted of 10 offences against seven girls: two offences of rape and eight offences of sexual activity with a child.

It is likely the men, who met in church, will be deported upon finishing their sentences; Koroma is from Sierra Leona and N’Gasa from Tanzania.

Describing the impact on her life, one girl told the judge: “I started to question why it happened and did I do something to deserve it?”, while another simply said “I feel worthless”.

Detective Chief Inspector Miles Ockwell , in charge of the case since 2014, said: “We are glad to know that justice has now been done for the girls.”